Jesse Marsh

(27 July 1907 - 28 April 1966, USA)

Jesse Marsh was a comic artist who is mainly known for his work on 'Tarzan', the comics series published by Dell. A self-taught artist, he began his artistic career at the Walt Disney Studios in 1939. His initial work included animation, but soon he became a story man, working on 'Pinocchio' (1940) and 'Fantasia' (1940). During the War, he served as a radar man in Army Air Force, after which he returned to Disney. While continuing at Disney, Marsh also took on freelance jobs from Western Publishing from 1945. His first assignment was 'Gene Autry', but soon he was assigned to 'Tarzan'.

'Tarzan' was at first published in the Dell Four Color feature, but soon got his own comic book. Marsh pencilled, inked and lettered most of the early issues and continued the comic for about 153 issues. At the same time, he continued his work on 'Gene Autry' until 1950. He left Disney in 1947 to devote all his time to his work for Dell/Western. Throughout the 1950s, he also did work on series like among others 'John Carter of Mars'. In 1965, he left the drawing of the 'Tarzan' series to his friend Russ Manning, because of his failing health.